Essay On How Far Were Australian Nurses Who Served During The Gallipoli Campaign

WW1 was triggered by many reasons, the main reason being the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austria-Hungary throne, on July 28th, 1914. This caused a chain reaction of war declarations against various countries, and Australia became involved on August 4th, 1914, when Britain requested support to fight Germany. Along with 16,000 ANZACs, nearly 3000 women served as nurses during the Gallipoli campaign right from the start on 25th April 1915. The question in this research essay is “To what extent were Australian nurses who served during the Gallipoli campaign valued for their contribution?”. This essay will investigate the nurses of the Gallipoli campaign, who were highly valued as they were essential to the military

According to WW1 New Zealand military doctor Robert Campbell Begg, the nurses work was “the most important job of all”, as the nurses care for the wounded “saved more lives than doctors’ drugs and operative skill…”. This implies that the nurses saved many lives, and without them, the military would most likely have failed to bring any soldiers back to their families. It also demonstrates a positive and respectful value towards the nurses from a WW1 doctor, who possibly stated this promote the nurses’ value who served during the Gallipoli campaign. Another source, from The Australian War Memorial, supports this as it explicitly says “…having faced the dangers and demands of wartime…nurses had proved to be essential to the military medical service…” This suggests that the Gallipoli campaign nurses faced many moments where they could lose their lives, either under attack or from disease, and they worked tirelessly to complete the wartime ‘demands’, as in the endless work of healing and caring many soldiers at once. Thus, evidence shows that the nurses were highly valued for their contribution during the Gallipoli campaign, but other sources contradict this idea, as despite the nurses’ hard work and bravery, not all of them were

The nurses were titled as an equal rank to the army, as both services were equally important to the military operation, however, despite the equal rank, the nurses were paid half of what the male officers and the army received. The nurses’ had to receive financial support from their families while they were away due to these highly low wages (insert reference). This negatively suggests that the importance of the nurses’ work and their contribution during the Gallipoli campaign was not highly valued. Another government source says that the nurses’ worked in different countries on ships and hospitals under deplorable and unhygienic conditions, and some also worked closer to the front line, where they could be killed. For their valuable contribution, many were ‘decorated,’ meaning awarded for bravery, and eight nurses received the Military Medal, and as it may seem there were highly valued, this proves that not all nurses were recognized for their hard work and contribution (insert reference). This negatively implies that only a few got recognized and awarded when all 3000 nurses did the same duty of healing and caring for the wounded. Therefore, contradicting sources have proven that the nurses weren’t valued as highly as they should be…but other sources prove